I love seeing news stories about deaf dogs learning signs because what it does is bring awareness to our cause of getting even more deaf dogs adopted but it also shows the dog’s in such a good light. A big shout out to Jill Chanel for telling Whitney’s story and also a big thanks goes out to Fox19 News Reporter and TV5 Anchor Craig McMorris for taking on and featuring this story. Craig just showed the folks of Michigan that indeed Deaf Dogs Rock. ~ Christina Lee – Deaf Dogs Rock
Local woman trains deaf Dalmatian to understand sign language.
BAY CITY, MI (WNEM) – From Fox19.c0m – Written By: Craig McMorris, TV5 Anchor/Reporter and Posted by Tom Plahutnik, Web Editor Producer
A Bay City woman has been busy training her dog to be a therapy dog. That in itself isn’t strange, but what’s out of the ordinary in this case is that the dog is deaf and is learning through sign language. Jill Chanel’s Dalmatian Whitney can’t hear. But that doesn’t matter to Chanel, who is a dog lover. She also owns two beagles, one of which is a therapy dog. She wanted another Dalmatian after the one she owned for 15 years died last January.
To view the actual Fox19 News video, please click on the following link: FOX19.com-Cincinnati News, Weather
“They are wonderful and they make wonderful pets, I had no previous experience with a deaf dog,” said Chanel, who wanted a rescue dog, and she found an organization out of Pennsylvania that adopts out deaf Dalmatians.
The goal of that group is to stamp out a terrible tradition. “The Dalmatian Club of America asks that breeders put deaf Dalmatians down humanely,” said Chanel. So Whitney arrived in Bay City in August. Ever since then, Chanel has been teaching her commands in American Sign Language. “
Whitney is moving right along in her education and recently she passed her “canine good citizen test.” This isn’t just a learning experience for Whitney; Chanel is also getting an education through all this.
To view the full story on www.fox19.com, please click here.
